A Living Dream
by Araelia Lambert
Summary: A fanfic writer's group finds themselves in the world they once wrote about
1. A very strange writing lesson

A Living Dream  
  
Disclaimer: You actually think I'm smart enough to come up with all of this? Gee, thanks, but I'm not. The world of Middle Earth, and most things in it belong to J. R. R. Tolkien. The characters Legolas, Gimli, Aragorn, Arwen, Faramir, Eowyn and Eomer also belong to Tolkien. The other characters, the ones from our Earth, all belong to myself (and friends whom I borrowed from with permission). I'm making no money off of this and don't take credit for making the places.  
  
Basics of the Story: A bunch of kids from our world are pulled through the computer and wind up in the land of Middle Earth. They find themselves meeting the characters they had idolized and hated, finding new friendships and enemies along the way.  
  
Status: Most certainly not finished! Under MAJOR construction, should be done in about three weeks.  
  
_____________________________________________________________________  
  
Sierra lay on her bed, deep in thought.  
  
A door . . . an opening to another place, a gate into a completely new area of existence. This door was like any other, the handle must be turned the right way. It signaled a change, a turning point.  
  
The girl strugled to remember more.  
  
It meant that there was something behind it. . . something else to be found. There was something hidden, behind closed doors.  
  
She frowned pensively, then tried again.  
  
One had to twist it to open it, then add some force, a push or pull. One had to make the door move in the proper direction. For doors could be used for exiting, as well as entering.  
  
Biting her lip, the tall student wrote this all down.  
  
One should close the door behind themselves, lest someone else find the secret as well. Doors were guardians, protectors of special things.  
  
Taking careful, precise notes, Sierra recorded her flow of thoughts. Cautious not to let her mind wander, she continued on the given path. . . or through the given door. Try as she might, the girl could think of nothing more signifigant about the broad subject of doors.  
  
A wisened, infomative voice broke in to her consentrating state. "Sierra. What have you got?" asked the kindly, knowing voice.  
  
"Only this," she said dejectedly, handing the woman owning the voice the sheet of paper.  
  
She scanned over the paper, muttering under her breath. "Opening, area, handle, change, hide, twist, force, exit and enter, guardians . . . this is all?"  
  
The girl gulped loudly. She nodded, twisting a lock of black hair about her finger.  
  
"Never thought to mention their association with walls? What about windows? And floors?" the old woman gave her a disdainful look. "You'll never become a fanfic author if this is your best effort."  
  
Sierra cringed slightly at the harsh words of her teacher, then nodded slowly. She found herself grinding her teeth in an effort not to retort. She took a calming breath and awaited her teacher's next assignment or critisism.  
  
"Right, well, now that we've settled that, I'll be off to tea. Now, I'll be back next week on Thursday to give you another lesson," she called, and with those parting words she bussled off down the stairs.  
  
Sierra's startled gaze followed her all the way down the stairs. She let out a feeble call of, "but Ms. Kalink," which was lost in the sound of the woman knocking over the coat stand.  
  
"Oh, clumbsy me! Must be more careful with that next time. Oh, and Sierra, before I forget: tell your mother that I'll be sending the bill in the mail," she said, turning back to call up the stairs. The old lady turned with remarkable balance for one so aged and bounced cheerfully out the door.  
  
She's gone? 20 dollars is coming out of my allowance for THAT lesson?! All I did was get told I wasn't good enough after spending an hour thinking!  
  
Sierra gave a heavy sigh as she closed the oak door to her bedroom. She flopped into the cozy computer chair and turned on the moniter with her toe. A yawn slipped through her lips as she waited for the computer to load. She tapped her fingers on the desk as the 'please wait' screen surfaced.  
  
"I'm tired of waiting. Hurry up, stupid comp," she muttered.  
  
The computer seemed to have heard her, replacing the blinking 'please wait' screen with her desktop. Her fingers expertly guided the mouse to the exact place where the 'my documents' icon would be. As soon as it popped onto the screen, she double-clicked and waited for it to bring up the load menu.  
  
She scrolled down to her latest work and began writing. . .  
  
~*~*~*~ ...........It was a cold night in Rivendale, and Tydoni shivered dispite her thick elven cloak. Her straight teeth chattered together and she could only keep out the cold by imagining herself in a warm bed. She gritted her teeth in determination and rode on towards the Elven home.  
  
A candle lit the face of an approaching figure. She gave a gasp of happiness and threw herself from her horse into the arms of 'her' Orlinyr.  
  
'I haven't seen you in so long!' he cried, embracing her cold figure....... ~*~*~*~ Sierra pushed the chair back from the computer. It was no use! She just wasn't in the mood to write. Instead she reached for the phone, instinctively dialing the phone number of her best friend. Again her fingers began to anxiously thrum across the tabletop as she waited for Brie to pick up. 


	2. A Phone Conversation and Popup Adds

The distintive sound of the phone rang once in Brie's sensitive ears. At first she ignored it, continuing to write on the paper that she was writing on. But then, she decided to reach for the phone, deciding that maybe it was someone else other than someone calling only for her brother. Pressing the 'on' button, she gave a dull "Hello," as she didn't really care how she sounded at the moment.  
  
"Hey, Brie, it's Sierra," she said, sounding equally dull. She picked herself up from the comfy computer chair and plopped across her bed in a very un-ladylike fashion. "'sup on your end of the line?"  
  
Immediately at the sound of Sierra's voice she sat up, surprised to hear her voice. A small grin crossed her face, even though Sierra couldn't see it. The next time she spoke, her voice was much more spirited than it had been.  
  
"Hey, Sierra!" She paused for a second before answering, as if thinking, yet there was nothing to think about. "Nothing here, except an unbelievable ammount of boredom." Her voice was sarcastic now.  
  
"Eh, no kidding. I'm having 'one of those days' again today. I woke up late because Nick turned off the alarm again, I didn't have my math homework, we had that nasty hamburger stuff for lunch, I just got done with a really strange fanfic lesson, AND my creativity is totally drained." She let out a loud sigh and began thumping her foot against the headboard of her bed.  
  
Brie listened intently, knowing after the first few words of Sierra that her day had run much more smoothly than Sierra's. Although her day had been the same as always, it was boring, nothing happened. Nothing exciting, in a good way or a bad, had happened in several days, and it was wearing away at her. "Well, at least your day changes from day to day. I run through the same things every morning, so boring." She put accent on 'every.'  
  
"My day changes, yeah: it just gets worse and worse," she grumbled, giving the headboard a good kick. "So, you up for an RP on the web? I think I could manage a little creativity."  
  
Brie gave a small chuckle, seeing the point that she had just made. She gave a small shrug before life was once again visible through her eyes at the word 'rp.' Rpg was probably the one thing she could look forward to in a day at times. "Dumb question, Sierra. Of course I'm up for rpg. When am I not?" She grinned yet again, waiting for what Sierra would say.  
  
Sierra considered for a moment, then a creative grin found it's way onto her face. "Well, I'd say you're not when you are sick in bed with measle, mumps, chickenpox, the flu and an algebra test."  
  
Contemplating for a moment, Brie gave a bit of thought to what Sierra had said, a faint grin coming to cross on her features. Quickly she had come up with an answer.  
  
"No, I'd say that'd be the one thing I could look forward to." She laughed at her own remark. It wasn't exactly completely true, yet it wasn't totally false either.  
  
"Alright, well, let's get RPing! Race ya to the site!" Sierra challenged, knowing that this was her only friend that also had DSL. Any other she could beat in a race, only because she didn't have to sign on.  
  
A grin was now spread wide across her face. Since she had been righting she was already at her desk, but her computer wasn't up yet. Immediately she turned it on, glad that it was fast to load. Being the sneak she usually was, she hadn't yet told Sierra she'd agreed to the race, instead she waited for her computer to boot up. When it was done, she quickly said. "You're on!" Clicking the internet explorer shortcut she pressed 'stop' before allowing her home page to load. Scrolling through favorites she clicked on the one she chose most often, and began to wait for it to load.  
  
Sierra scurried back over to her computer, thinking herself to be quite clever. She had left the internet browser up on her homepage after trying to type. She quickly let the page load, then typed in the URL of the chat site.  
  
"C'mon, stupid thing! Load!" she muttered. She brought up a chat box and IMed Brie a quick "BEAT YA!" just before her computer loaded the page.  
  
Suddenly a little blue screen popped up on both computers. /LotR roleplaying is a good thing. True or False?/ Both girls' cursors moved immediately to the 'true' option and clicked. Another question popped onto the screen. /Middle Earth is a wonderful place. I would love to be there, or it sounds dangerous?/ Again both cursors moved, this time to the 'I would love to live there' button. They clicked and an application took the place of the question sheet. 


	3. The First Who Came

Sierra gave it a puzzled look, but began to fill it out anyway. Thinking herself extremely clever, she put in her character's information instead of her own. She read her choices out loud to herself as she got ready to click the 'apply' button. "My name is Saedryna. I'm 290 years old, very young for my Lothlorien-elf race. I'm a female, clad in a silver shirt, green vest and tawny cloak. I have charcoal pants and tall black boots with elvish letters. I wear a quiver of arrows, a bow and a small dagger in a highly-ornemented belt. My weapon of choice is my bow-and-arrows, though I sometimes use my dagger. I live in Lothlorien, with my kin." She nodded, satisfied with the information.  
  
Another girl on the same site was getting the pop-up also. She tried multiple times to exit the screen, but it just wouldn't stop coming up. Finally she filled out the info, not using her real stats either.  
  
Name: Malcollowen. Age: 18. Race: Human. Gender: female. Outfit: elven clothes. Weapon(s) of choice: sword bow and arrow. Place of residence: Rohan.  
  
At the moment she pressed 'send,' her little sister ran into the room. "Stef, mom says you need to get off the computer.... oooh, are you filling out a prize thing? Did you win? Let me try!" the littler girl shouted, nudging Stefinie out of the computer chair. The little girl sat down and began to fill out the second entry form which had just popped up.  
  
Name: Neinna Carisahn. Age: 26. Race: hobbit! Gender: female. Outfit: jean overalls, a khaki shirt, and really cool little boots over my furry hobbit feet! Weapon(s) of choice: pocket knife. Place of residence: currently in Rohan, though lives in Buckland.  
  
Brie stared curiously at the application, tilting her head to the side. She had closed it once, though it was quite repetitive. This time she looked at it, becoming very interested. She looked at the questions, quite sure that she wouldn't put her own information in it. Typing rather eagerly, she filled in her information, scanning it over at least three times before allowing herself to say that it was almost perfect. Name: Rakainya. Age: 21 years. Race: Human. Gender: Female. Outfit: Trousers of a dark brown coloration, along with a long-sleeved beige colorated shirt. Both are rather worn and old, many dirt spots on them. Although this may be true about them, they are not tattered, though rather carefully repaired in many places. Along with this she wears a vest of the same color as her trousers and posesses a hooded cloak of a light brown color, yet she seems to hardly use this. Weapon(s) of choice: Long Sword & Twin Daggers. Place of residence: Rohan.  
  
Si clicked the send button at the same time as the other 19 people getting the message. Everyone felt a tugging sensation starting just behind their ears and slowly a feeling of numbness envelopping them. Sierra's last thought before blacking out was: I'm falling asleep at the computer again.  
  
There was a small flash of purple light, then each person was gone from their room. 


	4. Waking Up and Counting the Days

No longer did Brie know what was happening to her. She didn't know where she was, nor when this strange sensation would stop. Though almost immediately after it started, it seemed to stop. Allowing her eyes to open, she saw not the computer screen in front of her, nor her room, but instead the walls of Rohan straight out in front of her. Instead of being alarmed by not being in her bedroom safe at home, a relieved sigh escaped her mouth, glad to see the very welcomed site of being near home. Looking around a bit more, see saw the figure of Sierra a small distance away, and quickly picked herself up and walked over in her direction. Smiling she bent down, seeing that her eyes were closed. She gave her a little nudge, awaiting her to arise from her sleep.  
  
Sierra twitched and moved her mouth slightly. She groaned in protest to waking, rolling over onto her belly. A muffled grumble emitted from her covered face, sounding like "go 'way, zleebin'."  
  
Looking down at Sierra, Brie rolled her eyes a bit yet a grin was now placed on her features. Giving her a much bigger nudge on the shoulder she added words this time.  
  
"I'll go get a bucket of cold water to pour over you." It was more of a threat than anything, and she was not afraid to put truth to it either.  
  
"Wa'er... I dun li' wa'er," she mutter, her mouth still asleep. She managed to flop her hand in a motion that was meant to be a wave. She tried to lift her foot, but the effort was no match for the power of sleep. The leg twitched once, but didn't move in the intended "beware: I kick" motion it had been instructed to use.  
  
Giving an overly-loud sigh Brie grabbed one of Sierra's arms in attempt to pull her in an upright position. Maybe that would manage to wake her up. She didn't feel like walking all the way inside and all the way back just to fetch a bucket of water. But, at the moment, that seemed like it was going to be the only way.  
  
Sierra was glad her face was down on the ground: it hid her grin very nicely. She feigned one last flop of the arm, then her grin grew wider. She lept to her feet and let go of Brie's hand, trying to send her sprawling.  
  
Eyes growing wide in surprise as Sierra quickly stood up and let go of her hand, Brie quickly flopped on her back to the ground quite hard. Wincing with a little bit of pain, she immediately got back up, brushing the dirt off herself. Rolling her eyes at Sierra she quickly finsihed the job, as she didn't care that much if some still lingered on the fabric. Deciding she'd get her revenge later she quickly spoke, grinning.  
  
"Finally. . ."  
  
Sierra gave her a playful grin. She shook her head slowly at her friend. That trick just _never_ got old. She spoke in a casual tone, standing up slowly and leaning against a nearby rock.  
  
"You know, you'd think people would catch on to that little prank after years and years of me pulling it. How long have you known me, Rakainya, and how many times have I done that to you?"  
  
Returning the grin that Sierra gave once again Brie listened to her words. Already Brie had begun to plot her revenge, yet now was not the time. Pretending to think at her question she held up her fingers as if counting before answering with a smirk on her face.  
  
"More than I'd like to admit."  
  
Sierra gave her a mock-offended look and touched her hand to her chin in feigned dismay. Her eyes were round and glittered with a joke hiding behind them.  
  
"And how long _would_ you admit to knowing me, puny human? Eh? How long would you say that Saedryna-the-great has graced you by her presence?" she challenged, a self-assured smirk on her face.  
  
Wondering what she could possibly be about to say not, Brie began to predict, though her guesses were all totally wrong. The grin on her face faded a bit, and she rolled her eyes once more. But it was impossible to be even slightly angry with Sierra, even with her sense of humor at times. She wasn't exactly fond with being called a 'puny human' as she was well aware of what Sierra was. Yet, even then she did not mind it all that much, yet merely shrugged with a small smile in response.  
  
Sierra's grin widened when Brie made no response. She made her face a mix of concern and question, still keeping the infernal smirk.  
  
"Oh, come-come now! Surely you have been marking the days since you first met one so - hmm, does 'wonderful' sound to vain?- as myself?" she asked, giving her best imitation of a self-obsessed posture.  
  
She sighed softly and dropped the facade of confidence, though the smile remained. "No, seriously, you don't know how long we've known eachother? I'm quite certain it's been some length of time by your years. Can you give me no esitmate? Not even a rough guess?"  
  
Grin growing wider with each word Sierra said Brie listened to her intently, until it looked as if her smile could grow anymore. Pretending to be deep in thought at her last question after a few minutes she spoke, her voice almost skeptical sounding.  
  
"Hmm..I'd say I've known you for about 7 years; but I'm not sure how long you've 'graced my presence." She grinned.  
  
"For your information, we've known eachother for 7 years and 19 days... not that I kept count or anything."  
  
Her eyes refused to meet Rakainya's as she tried to deny the side of her that loved to keep track of things, the side that kept surfacing. She let her shoulders drop slightly.  
  
"Eh, sorry, you know how it is with me 'n' counting..." she muttered, scuffing her foot against the rocks. 


End file.
